Writer-director Kelly O’Sullivan and co-writer-producer Alex Thompson prove that a low-budget independent production can become one of the most impressive films of 2024. Ghostlight premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It’s streaming on a number of services and still playing at a few theaters.
The film tells the story of the Mueller family and how they are dealing with a recent tragic loss. Father Dan, mother Sharon, and teen-aged daughter Daisy are having a difficult time relating to one another and coping within their own worlds. Dan is a construction worker who becomes violent over a stupid traffic incident. Sharon suffers in a home of disturbances with Dan and Daisy. Daisy shoves a teacher and gets suspended from school.
What’s with these people? It is worth two hours of your time to explore the distraught world of this family. Many viewers are turned away by stories of grief, downer dramas that begin with sadness and travel downward to despondency. Ghostlight is a more varied mood piece. When Dan falters and loses his job, he joins a small community theater group. They are preparing a production of Romeo and Juliet. The introduction of this turn-of-events changes Ghostlight from a straightforward story of a dysfunctional family to a tiered, more complex tale of a family working through their grief in an unconventional way.
Keith Kupferer, Tara Mallen, and Katherine Mallen Kupferer play the Muellers. They are a real-life theater family portraying an onscreen theater family. Keith as the father has the most screen time and puts in an extraordinary performance. Whether he is playing Dan or playing Dan interpreting Shakespeare’s Romeo, he compels attention.
Parallels between a modern situation and Shakespeare’s play from 1597 could seem a stretch, even formulaic. But it works! The amateur acting group says their lines in an unaffected manner. It helps that we also see them in non-theatrical moments as they exercise and interact in friendly or strained ways with their fellow thespians.
Ghostlight works for a number of reasons. The acting is first-rate. It should be noted that The Kupferer-Mallen family are well-known and successful as a theatrical family in the Chicago area where this film was shot. Dolly de Leon, a much-acclaimed Filipino actor, is terrific as Rita, a member of the amateur theater troupe.
The script is well structured; we learn details of the Muellers’ tragedy slowly as the film progresses. In addition to dramatic scenes, there are displays of warmth and even mild comedy. Particularly with the teenager Daisy, for the first part of the movie I was wondering, “What’s with this kid? She’s ugly-bitter and swears with every sentence she utters. As time goes on, it becomes obvious that there also is a pleasant side to this gal; she is bright, talented, and loving. The mood changes work well.
Why is the film called Ghostlight? A ghostlight is the single light that remains on on-stage when a theater is shut down. It also is used in modern slang as a manipulation technique in relationships—what happens first which results in gaslighting. Honestly, if asked to explain in more detail, I couldn’t.
As far as I am concerned, you could call this film by any other name and it would smell as sweet, ring as true. So impressive is O’Sullivan and Thompson’s ability to show the power of theater on peoples’ lives. So impressive is their ability to shoot and edit this film within a month’s time and have it be one of the top films of 2024!
Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and retired appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and co-authored several entertainment biographies with her late husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.
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